Old Blog

Action or State?

Look in the lower left corner. Is it currently set to repeat album, or will that happen when you press the 'Repeat Album' label? It's an action label, you can put it after 'I want to...', which indicates that when you press it, it will repeat the album you're currently playing. So you'd be excused for thinking that that's how it works. Of course it's actually already repeating the album; it's actually showing you the current repeat state. Tapping brings up a menu of options.

It took for me to look at this with my interface design hat on to realize that the bold type was indicating an 'active mode'. What's so amazing is that once again, as with the lock screen, these are things that are already solved. We got this. Open your music app for iOS 6, and the icons for repeating and shuffling are as clear as day.

Disclaimer: I understand iOS 7 is in beta. My point with these posts is that some of these are things are fundamentally misconceived. Apple is no slouch, I'm sure in time they'll fix these issues. But much of this stuff shouldn't have left the whiteboard if you ask me. Also, I believe in publicly discussing these issues so that we can all learn from them and educate each other.